frontpage.
newsnewestaskshowjobs

Made with ♥ by @iamnishanth

Open Source @Github

fp.

Toroidal Logit Bias – Reduce LLM hallucinations 40% with no fine-tuning

https://github.com/Paraxiom/topological-coherence
1•slye514•1m ago•1 comments

Top AI models fail at >96% of tasks

https://www.zdnet.com/article/ai-failed-test-on-remote-freelance-jobs/
3•codexon•1m ago•1 comments

The Science of the Perfect Second (2023)

https://harpers.org/archive/2023/04/the-science-of-the-perfect-second/
1•NaOH•2m ago•0 comments

Bob Beck (OpenBSD) on why vi should stay vi (2006)

https://marc.info/?l=openbsd-misc&m=115820462402673&w=2
2•birdculture•5m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Glimpsh – exploring gaze input inside the terminal

https://github.com/dchrty/glimpsh
1•dochrty•6m ago•0 comments

The Optima-l Situation: A deep dive into the classic humanist sans-serif

https://micahblachman.beehiiv.com/p/the-optima-l-situation
1•subdomain•6m ago•0 comments

Barn Owls Know When to Wait

https://blog.typeobject.com/posts/2026-barn-owls-know-when-to-wait/
1•fintler•7m ago•0 comments

Implementing TCP Echo Server in Rust [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjOBZ_Xzuio
1•sheerluck•7m ago•0 comments

LicGen – Offline License Generator (CLI and Web UI)

1•tejavvo•10m ago•0 comments

Service Degradation in West US Region

https://azure.status.microsoft/en-gb/status?gsid=5616bb85-f380-4a04-85ed-95674eec3d87&utm_source=...
2•_____k•10m ago•0 comments

The Janitor on Mars

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1998/10/26/the-janitor-on-mars
1•evo_9•12m ago•0 comments

Bringing Polars to .NET

https://github.com/ErrorLSC/Polars.NET
3•CurtHagenlocher•14m ago•0 comments

Adventures in Guix Packaging

https://nemin.hu/guix-packaging.html
1•todsacerdoti•15m ago•0 comments

Show HN: We had 20 Claude terminals open, so we built Orcha

1•buildingwdavid•15m ago•0 comments

Your Best Thinking Is Wasted on the Wrong Decisions

https://www.iankduncan.com/engineering/2026-02-07-your-best-thinking-is-wasted-on-the-wrong-decis...
1•iand675•15m ago•0 comments

Warcraftcn/UI – UI component library inspired by classic Warcraft III aesthetics

https://www.warcraftcn.com/
1•vyrotek•17m ago•0 comments

Trump Vodka Becomes Available for Pre-Orders

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kirkogunrinde/2025/12/01/trump-vodka-becomes-available-for-pre-order...
1•stopbulying•18m ago•0 comments

Velocity of Money

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velocity_of_money
1•gurjeet•20m ago•0 comments

Stop building automations. Start running your business

https://www.fluxtopus.com/automate-your-business
1•valboa•25m ago•1 comments

You can't QA your way to the frontier

https://www.scorecard.io/blog/you-cant-qa-your-way-to-the-frontier
1•gk1•26m ago•0 comments

Show HN: PalettePoint – AI color palette generator from text or images

https://palettepoint.com
1•latentio•27m ago•0 comments

Robust and Interactable World Models in Computer Vision [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9B4kkaGOozA
2•Anon84•30m ago•0 comments

Nestlé couldn't crack Japan's coffee market.Then they hired a child psychologist

https://twitter.com/BigBrainMkting/status/2019792335509541220
1•rmason•32m ago•1 comments

Notes for February 2-7

https://taoofmac.com/space/notes/2026/02/07/2000
2•rcarmo•33m ago•0 comments

Study confirms experience beats youthful enthusiasm

https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/07/boomers_vs_zoomers_workplace/
2•Willingham•40m ago•0 comments

The Big Hunger by Walter J Miller, Jr. (1952)

https://lauriepenny.substack.com/p/the-big-hunger
2•shervinafshar•41m ago•0 comments

The Genus Amanita

https://www.mushroomexpert.com/amanita.html
1•rolph•46m ago•0 comments

We have broken SHA-1 in practice

https://shattered.io/
10•mooreds•47m ago•4 comments

Ask HN: Was my first management job bad, or is this what management is like?

1•Buttons840•48m ago•0 comments

Ask HN: How to Reduce Time Spent Crimping?

2•pinkmuffinere•49m ago•1 comments
Open in hackernews

The Atomic Airplane

https://whatisnuclear.com/the-story-of-the-atomic-airplane.html
79•mpweiher•8mo ago

Comments

krunck•8mo ago
Something that should never be built. Along with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supersonic_Low_Altitude_Missil....
piombisallow•8mo ago
Radiation effects are vastly overrated.
gambiting•8mo ago
I agree with you, I've engaged in multiple discussions here on HN with people claiming that a nuclear reactor-equipped rocket or plane makes everything below it poisoned for centuries and uninhabitable just by flying over it. TLDR is that it's simply not true. But, the radiation risks are still significant and cannot be dismissed - and likely mean that we'll never see this kind of propulsion used for anything other than a true "doomsday" weapon where the emissions don't matter but the infinite range and flight time are significant advantages.
arethuza•8mo ago
For a real "doomsday" weapon you don't even need a delivery mechanism.

"When you merely wish to bury bombs, there is no limit to the size"

For a real life example - Teller's Sundial design.

Yeul•8mo ago
This reminds me of something I read about the Vulcan strategic bombers:

After dropping their bombs on Russia they were supposed to fly to North Africa and land on airstrips because England was expected to be gone.

wat10000•8mo ago
There are huge variations in what’s been proposed.

A nuclear-powered airplane would most likely use a closed-cycle reactor with the heat replacing the combustion in otherwise fairly conventional jet engines. They’d be totally harmless in normal operation, with the radiological danger being if they crashed and scattered the contents of their reactor.

Similarly, nuclear thermal rockets like NERVA are closed cycle and pose no radiological danger unless they explode or crash.

And then there are open-cycle designs such as nuclear ramjets, fission-fragment rockets, and Orion. Those are bad news bears for anyone nearby, and possibly the entire planet.

gambiting•8mo ago
I mean even the "worst" of all designs, the one linked in the comment we're all replying to(SLAM - ramjet design) says this:

" Specifically, he states "The reactor radiations, while intense, do not lead to problems with personnel who happen to be under such a power plant passing overhead at flight speed even for very low altitudes." In both documents, he describes calculations that prove the safety of the reactor and its negligible release of fission products compared to the background. Along the same vein of these calculations, the missile would be moving too quickly to expose any living things to prolonged radiation needed to induce radiation sickness. This is due to the relatively low population of neutrons that would make it to the ground per kilometer, for a vehicle traveling at several hundred meters per second. Any radioactive fuel elements within the reactor itself would be contained and not stripped by the air to reach the ground"

Orion is obviously incredibly bad due to the fact it uses actual nuclear detonations for prepulsion. But it's never been a very serious project, while SLAM has been built and tested.

wat10000•8mo ago
Of the things I listed, SLAM seems like the least bad. The reactor at least tries to keep the fission products within the reactor. That said, I would be very skeptical of safety claims from someone who needs it to be safe for their project to be successful, especially from the 1950s.
cycomanic•8mo ago
It's worth remembering that airplanes have to start, land and taxi as well. So while radiation levels might be safe while the plane is flying at altitude, things might be very different where planes have to land and start.
lupusreal•8mo ago
I'm convinced that nuclear salt water rockets would be safe to operate in space. And a much better idea than Orion.
wat10000•8mo ago
Not frying every satellite above the horizon when used near Earth would certainly be a plus.
perihelions•8mo ago
The Russians already built one, supposedly [0].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9M730_Burevestnik

sandworm101•8mo ago
Way to bury the lead. The NATO reporting name for this missile appears to be "SKYFALL", maybe the best codename ever.
preisschild•8mo ago
And already caused a nuclear accident with 5 russian deaths :)
acidburnNSA•8mo ago
There's a pretty slick film on nuclear propelled cruise missiles as well: https://youtu.be/8qMuS5kaDBI
__turbobrew__•8mo ago
> 350 MW/m3

It is pretty insane the power density you can get when you don’t shield a reactor.

christkv•8mo ago
Definitively up there with most fallout design idea.
acidburnNSA•8mo ago
If you like nuclear powered flight, you'll also really enjoy this other one that I got digitized in February: "Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion: Manned Aircraft Progress Report" [1]. It's actually from back in the 50s and digitized extremely well.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-8q8INxQEY

I also have a blog announcement of it if you just want to see some screenshots up front before deciding to dig in: [2]

[2] https://whatisnuclear.com/news/2025-02-03-declassified-nucle...

webdoodle•8mo ago
The engine to one of these atomic airplanes is on display at Idaho National Labs, near Sun Valley, Idaho.
acidburnNSA•8mo ago
Two of them actually! Those are HTRE-1/2 and HTRE-3 mentioned in the transcript, (and shown back in the day here [1]). HTRE-1 was disassembled and turned into HTRE-2 which is why you only see two of them now.

[1] https://youtu.be/V-8q8INxQEY?t=372

waffletower•8mo ago
Thunderbirds are go!
petalmind•8mo ago
Here are some scans from a 1957 Soviet book on nuclear aircraft:

https://xplanes.tumblr.com/post/30938386375/from-the-cover-o...

https://xplanes.tumblr.com/post/30941448265/from-nuclear-pow...

https://xplanes.tumblr.com/post/30944519719/from-nuclear-pow...

https://xplanes.tumblr.com/post/30947450568/from-nuclear-pow...

https://xplanes.tumblr.com/post/30952419021/from-nuclear-pow...

glimshe•8mo ago
Beyond SpaceX, do we still work on crazy futuristic stuff like this and things such as windowed user interfaces (which was very futuristic at one point)?
preisschild•8mo ago
> Beyond SpaceX, do we still work on crazy futuristic stuff like this

Yes, NASA&DARPA wanted to revive nuclear thermal propulsion and Lockheed Martin&BWXT were already building a demonstrator rocket for an in-space demo, but the Trump admin axed the funding...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demonstration_Rocket_for_Agile...

t1234s•8mo ago
I remember seeing an interview with UFO researcher Stanton Freedman and he claimed he worked on nuclear airplane projects.
loph•8mo ago
This is related.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_Nuclear_Aircraft_Labor...

my understanding is that the area is still a bit "hot" with radiation.